Yeah but… were they wrong? It’s a channel watched largely by right wing knuckledraggers who want their often backwards views reinforced. The production quality is atrocious. It’s basically a cheap copy of Fox News over in the states.
I think the BBC reporter was wrong to have a dismissive condescending attitute toward GB News insofar as he is working for a 'uniquely funded' organisation and is in a unique position compared to his commercial rivals in that he has less pressure to produce ratings and results. I think he should have just presented the news about Fox being suspended impartially. Not everyone who works at GB News holds the same views as Fox, they are just trying to pay off their mortage and survive in the commercial media sector.
The production quality part doesn't bother me personally, I'm more interested in whats being said than what I'm looking at frankly. I think you'd agree that one of the big problems we face today is 'image over content' and although you'd probably argue GB News has neither, that's fine because you're entitled to not watch. TalkTV is slicker, but TalkTV is bankrolled by the Murdoch empire and their production budget no doubt dwarfs GB News ... ironically though their viewing figures do the opposite. Which brings me onto another point (if you can stand it).
I watched Mark Dolan's opening monologue last night and have to say I agreed with most of it, especially the part about Adam Boulton calling for GB News to be axed when he appeared on Newsnight. Boulton regularly appears on Murdoch-owned TalkTV, a direct rival. Murdoch has been trying to purchase GB News for over a year now. It's a shame Newsnight didn't bring that up. Also, there are stong rumours that Newsnight itself might be axed by the BBC chief as he views it as 'not value for money', it currently draws between 200-300 thousand viewers and costs 8 million to produce.
Fox News is successful (although slowly losing viewers currently), so I don't see why any channel wouldn't want to copy that format, the primary name of the game in the commercial sector is to make money. Anyway, if any channel was a British version of Fox News it would be TalkTV seeing it is owned by the same company. As for the 'right-wing knuckle-draggers' comment, I think you're just being a bit playful there, which is fine. A lot of people are turned-off by the BBC and are looking for alternative sources of information ...it's up to the other channels to produce content that cater for that demographic*.
*That would mean doing a deep-dive into social-political, economic, and education factors and this probably isn't the place for that and I frankly haven't got the time! (or have done enough solid research!).
duck, I need a cup of tea after that. I can't believe the first thing I did today was defend GB News!
